The non-obviousness part absolutely requires more domain expertise than I expect a lot of patent clerks bring, but checking for prior art seems like something that could be found via search or crowdsourcing.
Imagine if there were a public review step to granting patents, where the broader community could provide examples of prior art and debate the non-obviousness of it.
Imagine if there were a public review step to granting patents, where the broader community could provide examples of prior art and debate the non-obviousness of it.